Left out of my story last week on the upcoming details of the proposed Coral Sea marine protected area (see here) was a couple of pars about the possible timing of the draft plans release with US President Barack Obama’s visit next week.
The region of course has major signficance for the US as the site of the WWII Battle of the Coral Sea, which to some extent help stop the Japense move in the Pacific.
As I understand it the whole 972,000 square kilometers of the currently unprotected parts of the Coral Sea (there are two small parks already) will be placed into some form of protection under the draft proposal. Roughly 50 per cent is no take, the rest allows a mix of recreational fishing or some commerical fishing or both.
So will we see the release of the draft Coral Sea plans next week when Obama turns up, say November 17?
And is it right that Australian officials are talking to US officials about the President mentioning the project in some form during his time in Canberra?
Guess we’ll found out…
